Mike's Bike Blog

I heard some talk around Austin that Ladera Norte was a more difficult climb than Jester. Seeing is believing is my opinion and with the great climbing post from Fatty I headed over to ladera norte during lunch to try my hand at what it has to offer

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At first glance it appears to be longer than Jester and there are the tall tell signs that there's a serious gradient with the spilled cement fossilized on the right side of the road. I started at the Intersection of Far West & ladera norte, this is downhill stretch of .1 mile. After the short downhill it starts to slope up at 3% and then jumps up to 9%. If 9% wasn't bad enough it starts to go up from there, up to 24%! For the next tenth of a mile to the top of the first section the average grade is 20%.

Once you survive the first part there is an easy section, well at least it's easier than the section you just got through. For the next .2 miles the average grade is 3.2%. Use this time wisely as there's one last intense section coming up.

The last tenth of a mile averages 20%, the last kick to the top is at 20.5%, the max grade of this section is 22%.

	Ladera Norte	Jester
Distance	.64	.4
Ascent	289	214.4
Avg. Grade	7.4%	9.5%
Max Grade	24.5%	22.4%

(I'm using a Garmin Forerunner 305. All numbers are subject to be off as each time I do a ride I can get different numbers.)

Conclusion

I didn't find Ladera Norte too difficult, in fact I did it 3 times with 3 & 5 minutes rest between each attempt. It definitely ranks up there as a must do hill in Austin, I rank it below Jester, Courtyard and below the 3 sisters. I'd compare this to Lost Creek, at least starting from the golf course and heading up Lost Creek towards 360. It's a bit harder at the 2 crests than anything on Lost Creek so I'd rate it slightly above Lost Creek. Definitely a keeper for hill repeats.

What's Next?

I still need to hit Beauford Drive, Smokey Valley, Bullick Hollow, Comanche Trail and Bluegrass.

The BikeNoob, has started a thread requesting input for the best bike blogs and sites. I've been gravitating to searching out blogs and sites that are dealing with training with power meters, nutrition and overall workouts in general. Here's some of the ones I'm following and find useful:

Chris Carmichael Training System - I'm a big Chris Carmichael fan, I've purchased and downloaded his iPod workouts, read his books. His blog and site have good entries on training, motivation and nutrition.

Joe Friel - Great info on endurance training. He also has the Training Bible site, I've just started going through it, but it looks like it has good content as well.

Training For Cyclists - Jesper has great content on training with Power and training plan ideas.

Cycling Performance Tips - This site has great content on every aspects of cycling.

Cycling Nutrition - Good product reviews and nutrition articles for cyclists.

Hammer Nutrition's Endurance email group. This is a fairly high traffic list, but is a good resource on fueling and nutrition for cyclists.

Hammer Nutrition's Training Tips. Articles on training, pre-race meals and recovery.

BikeReg.com - Texas Event Calendar

The Texas Bicycle Racing Association - List of mainly races, but does list a few event rides as well.

USA Cycling - Resource to find primarily races and clubs.

Active.com - Active.com's cycling page has training tips and articles.

If you have any good training sites not listed here let me know.

On Sunday morning I drove into Austin to Bicycle Sport Shop for the Austin Flyers Sunday ride. This wasn't your typical Sunday group ride, you know it has to be special for me to drive to a ride. This ride was sponsored by Chipotle. Which meant there was a free burrito for me at the end! There were 3 ride options 20, 35 and 50 mile routes. Since I already had a hard week I figured I'd go for the 35 mile route and take it easy. I hoped that Ray or Jared would show, but Ray was off on a Club Ride and I'm not sure what excuse Jared has for missing free food.

The entire parking lot was full, the lure of free food brought everybody out. There were probably 50 to 70 people at the ride. In the 35 mile route there were probably about 15 to 20 riders.

Once we shoved off I was content in the back. I kept telling myself that today was suppose to be an easy day, yet I wanted to get just a few more groups ahead as the group I was with was going slower than I wanted, or I was getting boxed in or following someone that would slow way down on the hills. So I kept moving forward. Finally on Old San Antonio Road I was at the front group, there was 1 other breakaway group of 4 riders a ways ahead. We were going along at 17 mph when I had a feeling one of the riders was going to make a move and try to catch the breakaway. He didn't disappoint, when he took off I was ready to go. He jumped into action and I caught his back tire. After a few minutes he started to tire on the hills and we were still a ways off from the breakaway. I thought I should attack on the hill but decided to bide my time a little and recover a bit myself (it was a "recovery" ride. Once we got over the climb I got out of his draft and got up to 25 mph reaching the breakaway guys. Once I got with them we strolled into Buda and waited for the main group to catch up.

From Buda we head under the interstate and onto some back roads. There seemed to be one section that was really rough, but me and 3 other riders found ourselves away from the main group again. Luckily we had a navigator with us (he had the map and could read it, plus he seemed to know the area), we made sure not to drop the navigator.  The highlight of the return was when I was chatting with Josh, he had on a Hotel San Jose jersey, but I'm not sure if he was a club rider or racer. As we were chatting one of our companions got out on his own breakaway. Josh turns to me and says he's going to try and catch the other guy and takes off. Well that's all the encouragement I needed and the race was on. I took off as well and I quickly shot past Josh and then then when I caught the lead guy I flew by him and coasted waiting for them to catch up. In this little sprint I got up to 32 mph and max power of 823 watts.

On our way back in when we got back on 1st street while we were stopped at a light who should come strolling in and turning in front of us onto 1st, but the main group. I later found out they got lost and didn't follow the route, they cut it short by 3 miles.

The burritos weren't suppose to be ready till 11a.m. but they had a few out when we returned at 10:30. I grabbed one that turned out to be a veggie (minus chicken). It was quite tasty so was the cold water and heed they had set up as well. Bicycle Sport Shop had set up tables and chairs outside for people to socialize and enjoy the fruits of their ride. From where I sat I could look inside through the window and watch the Tour on the big screen.

My compliments to Chipotle for sponsoring the ride, not only the Austin ride but the coordinated effort in other cities in the US as well. It was a great ride.

Ride Stats

Route Taken

Route Photos

Distance: 34.68

Time: 2:00:04

Average Speed: 17.25

Max Speed: 33.18

Average Power: 172 watts

Max Power: 859 watts